DEP seeks rate hike as institutions and co-ops owe millions

DEP seeks rate hike as institutions and co-ops owe millions
BY DORIAN BLOCK
Tuesday, April 29th 2008, 4:00 AM
Mendez for News

Keith Murphy, director of business affairs at Maritime College, holds letters sent to DEP regarding several discrepancies in the school’s $300,000 water bill.

Call it Law and Water.While the city Department of Environmental Protection turned off the water at nearly 100 single-family homes earlier this month, the agency has left the water running at dozens of Bronx institutions and co-op buildings that owe millions in unpaid bills.

To make matters worse, many of those institutions say they struggle to pay the bills because the DEP is charging them for years of misread meters and other billing mistakes.

The chaotic billing situation exists even as the DEP seeks a 14.5% water bill hike.City Council opponents of the hike fume it would not be necessary if the DEP collected the $600 million owed by 15% of its customers.

The DEP says it did not have the ability to recover the money until last December, when Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council gave it authority to impose property liens on deadbeats.

In early April, the DEP announced it was shutting the water off at 93 homes across the city that owed between $1,342 and $2,330 - a total that amounted to no more than $220,000.

Meanwhile, according to a list of delinquent payers the DEP released after receiving it via a Freedom of Information Act request, the top 10 debtors in the Bronx owe $6 million - most of them exempt from the lien sale.

They include St. Vincent De Paul, a nursing home which owes $844,465; Leland Gardens, a condo building on Leland Ave. which owes $961,642, and a housing development fund co-op building at 2089 Arthur Ave. which is $870,813 in arrears.

Many of the largest unpaid Bronx bills are from nursing homes that say they are strapped for cash and dependent on government funds, including St. Vincent de Paul, Workmen's Circle MultiCare Center and the Hebrew Home for the Aged.

Soloman Rutenberg, Workmen's Circle's executive director, said the home was hit with a $400,000 bill after the DEP found it had been misreading the home's meter for several years.

A Hebrew Home spokeswoman said it received one large bill at the end of 2007, after receiving none for about a year - with the bill jumping tremendously because of a new therapy pool.

Both Workmen's Circle in Baychester and the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale are paying $10,000 a week to bring down their debt.

Because DEP had been misreading its meter, a Verizon office facility in Longwood wound up with a $318,000 bill, which a Verizon spokesman said has now mostly been paid.

Councilman James Vacca (D-East Bronx) argues that single and two-family homeowners should not be held responsible for the payment delinquency of larger buildings and institutions.

"With homes for the aged, you have to give consideration. These are people who can't have their water turned off," Vacca said. "But everybody has to pay for the water and we can't shoulder all the responsibility on small-home owners. A lot of them have fallen on hard times, too.

"Mayor Bloomberg agreed: "You pay. I pay. They should pay," he said recently.

Seven of the top 10 Bronx bill debtors are housing development fund corporations, cooperative boards of some of the most affordable housing in the city.

"The buildings were purchased in the late '80s and early '90s for $250 an apartment, when they were worth nothing," said Ann Henderson of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board.

"The city would take a building and sell it back to the tenants in more or less as-is condition," she said. "There were no funded reserves, and in the early '90s, the water bills started to go through the roof."

While the DEP has permission to sell liens, the HDF corporations are exempt.

"If they have to choose whether to pay the fuel or pay the taxes, they are going to pay for the fuel," said Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, president of the HDFC Council, an advocacy group.

DEP said it "unfortunately" cannot take enforcement action against the housing development fund corporations, but is working with housing organizations to encourage payment and negotiating to allow more buildings to participate in their conservation plan, which lowers bills.

dblock@nydailynews.com

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philmcdonnell Apr 29, 2008 6:52:48 PM Report Offensive Post What is going on at the DEP that they can't bill properly, they can't read meters correctly, they can't figure out who owes what? Give me a break! They have nerve to shut off single family homes because they owe between $1,342 and $2,330 - a total that amounted to no more than $220,000 but yet leave some of the bigger owing debtors alone because they can't put a lien on anything. Once again this is typical government at work. The other issue of cash strapped nursing homes? Come on these are FOR PROFIT homes, they make a profit why can't they pay their bills? Now all of a sudden when they get hit with a bill they can find $10,000 a week to pay, this doesn't sound like they are too cash strapped to me.

fipnamember1 Apr 29, 2008 7:45:41 PM Report Offensive Post GIVE ME A BREAK..THEY ALWAYS GO AFTER THE LITTLE GUY BECAUSE HE'S THE EASIEST TO PICK OFF. THESE NURSING HOMES AND COOPS HAVE MONEY UP THE WAZOO , BUT THEY CAN'T PAY THEIR WATER BILLS.YEAH RIGHT. TURN OFF THEIR WATER AND SEE HOW FAST THE MONEY WILL MAGICALLY A PPEAR. TYPICAL OLD NYC BUREAUCRATIC HOGWASH.....IT'S A PROBLEM WITH THE BILLING.. WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE???

qns240 Apr 29, 2008 9:18:51 PM Report Offensive Post NO MORE INCREASES ON ANYTHING!!!! Especially when they can't get their billing straight.

RichNYC Apr 30, 2008 7:18:56 AM Report Offensive Post I'm curious? Why are these institutions exempt from the turn off? What's soooo different about them that they can't live without water like those others who have had their water turned off? I remember when water WAS FREE?!?!? It's too bad that EVERYTHING has come down to the dollar. Ya' need to tax those institutions JUST LIKE you tax the average water user. They can't or won't pay.... Turn their s*** off!!!

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/04/29/2008-04-29_dep_seeks_rate_hike_as_institutions_and_-4.html